All states battle it out in National Print Awards

Judges award gold to each state in this year’s National Print Awards, but who will take out the lion’s share?

25 gold, 30 silver and 27 bronze medals were awarded during the recent judging of the 27th National Print Awards at Printing Industries Melbourne headquarters. Rod Urquhart, chairman of judges, confirmed that every state scored at least one gold in what he described as “a challenging task.”

“It is always difficult to judge the very best example from a field of near-perfect entries,” he said. “But we were very mindful that this was our task, and have awarded only a single gold medal in each award category.”

The judging panel comprised of Colin Straughan; Owen King; Danny Roach; Graham Jamieson; Mark Bloustein and Peter O’Hanlon. All entries were randomly numbered and blind judged. “Judges made their decisions with no information other than the printed sample before them,” Urquhart assured.

Pictured: This year's judges, hard at work inspecting some of the best print in the country.

Last year was the first time the new best-of-the-best NPA ran and saw Victoria scoop the pool of entries in the 2009 awards. Urquhart said that this made organising the 2010 event easier. “Last year’s competition provided the NPA with a sound template for the judging process, resulting in a smooth process where all judges were able to individually assess then freely discuss the merits of each of the PICA gold medallists, before deciding as a panel on the place-getters for each category.”

Winners of this year’s National Print Awards will be presented at the NPA Presentation Dinner in Darling Harbour, Sydney, on Friday 26 March.